[Vision2020] Putz

[Deacon James]

Tim,

That call was terrible. I agree with you.

As far as Hargrove goes, he has made terrible decisions. Sure he's been to
the World Series, but any idiot could have managed a team like that to the
World Series. Here's a few reasons why I think Hargrove ought to be canned:

- When he first came on as manager, Ichiro was just coming off of his 262
hit season. So what does Hargrove do? He asks Ichiro to take a few more
pitches, not swing as much on the first pitch, and try to walk more. What
the heck? Ichiro did what he was told, and it screwed his timing up for half
the season. Hargrove nearly broke Ichiro! What sane person would come into a
new clubhouse and tell the best hitter in the league how to hit?

- For the first two months of the season, Jose Lopez was the best hitter on
the team, often leading the team in RBI and HR. However, he also led the
majors in sacrifice bunts. He was asked to sac bunt more than a pitcher.
There was even one game in which he was asked to sac bunt in 4 ABs.

- Aggressive base running can be a good thing, but aggressively running into
outs isn't.

- In the two extra inning games in Toronto this last weekend, there were 15
innings of relief pitching by the Mariners. Rafael Soriano and J.J. Putz,
the two best pitchers on the team, combined for 1 inning pitched. If it's
the bottom of the 11th, bases loaded, no outs, who do you want pitching: the
guy who loaded the bases or the best pitcher on you team?

- Carl Everett is still in the lineup. This to me is the biggest defense.
He's batting .228 on the year, but since the beginning of June, he's batting
.175, yet he still continues to play. Sure he'll hit a homerun now and again
(he's got 11 on the year); after all, he's swinging for the fences on every
pitch.Yes, he's a switch hitter, but hitting badly from both sides of the
plate isn't an advantage. The fact that he's still being trotted out there
every day has got to be a league-wide joke.

- The Mariners are a mediocre team in a mediocre division. Often when a
manager is replaced, the team will go on a little winning spurt. That alone
could be enough to give the M's the AL West. (A lousy reason, but true
nonetheless.)

Take care,

Deacon

On 7/20/06, Tim Lohrmann <timlohr at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Deacon,
> But there's a big but you neglected to mention, dude.
> What about the blown call at first?  Even the AP stories said the call was
> wrong. The game should have been over before the tying run was scored.
> What counted as a sac fly to score the tying run should have been the
> third out. You're right that Putz wasn't as sharp as he has been, but he
> can't be held responsible for blown calls.
>
>  I'm not so sure you're right about Hargrove, either.
>  I don't think he's Mr. Wonderful or anything necessarily, but he does
> have the experience of having been to a world series at least.
> And don't you think that firing him would pretty much disrupt the
> clubhouse for a while when the M's are still definitely in a division
> championship race?
> The time to make a change like that, if there even is a better option, is
> when the season's over, don'tcha think?
>          TL
>
>
> *Deacon James < deaconblues42 at gmail.com>* wrote:
>
> Visionatics,
>
> Last night, J.J. Putz blew a save against the Yankees that led to a
> Mariner loss in 11 innings.
>
> This was the first save situation in which Putz allowed a run since taking
> over as the closer in early May, and it was the first save situation in
> which he allowed a hit since June 6. Plus, he was pitching in what turned
> out to become a virtual tornado.
>
> Somehow, this is more evidence that Mike Hargrove should be fired, but I
> haven't yet found a way to twist it. Any help here would be appreciated.
>
> Take care,
>
> Deacon
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